Editing Stanisław Leszczyński (section)

==King for the first time==
{{further|Civil war in Poland (1704–06)}}
The following year, Stanisław was selected by [[Charles XII of Sweden]] after a successful [[Swedish invasion of Poland (1701–1706)|Swedish invasion of Poland]], to supersede Augustus II, who was hostile towards the Swedes. Leszczyński was a young man of blameless antecedents, respectable talents, and came from an ancient family, but certainly without sufficient force of character or political influence to sustain himself on so unstable a throne.

Nevertheless, with the assistance of a bribing fund and an army corps, the Swedes succeeded in procuring his [[1704 Polish–Lithuanian royal election|election]] by a scratch assembly of half a dozen [[castellany|castellan]]s and a few score of noblemen on 12 July 1704. A few months later, Stanisław was forced by a sudden inroad of Augustus II to seek refuge in the Swedish camp, but finally on 24 September 1705, he was crowned king with great splendor. Charles himself supplied his nominee with a new crown and scepter ''[[in lieu]]'' of the ancient [[Polish regalia]], which had been carried off to [[Electorate of Saxony|Saxony]] by Augustus. During this time the king of Sweden sent [[Peter Estenberg]] to King Stanislaw to act as an ambassador and correspondence secretary. The Polish king's first act was to cement [[Treaty of Warsaw (1705)|an alliance with Charles XII]] whereby the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] engaged to assist Sweden against the Russian tsar. Stanisław did what he could to assist his patron. Thus, he induced [[Ivan Mazepa]], the [[Cossack]] [[hetman]], to desert [[Peter the Great]] at the most critical period of the [[Great Northern War]] between Russia and Sweden, and Stanisław placed a small army corps at the disposal of the Swedes and was beaten in [[Battle of Koniecpol]]. However, Stanisław depended so entirely on the success of Charles' armies that after the [[Battle of Poltava]] (1709), his authority vanished as a dream at the first touch of reality. Stanisław then resided in the town of [[Rydzyna]].